10 things South Korea does better than anywhere else

By Frances Cha, CNN

Updated 0057 GMT (0757 HKT) August 30, 2014

10 photos

1. Whipping out the plastic – South Koreans became the world's top users of credit cards two years ago, making 129.7 transactions per person in 2011, compared with 77.9 transactions per person in the United States.

Hide Caption

1 of 10

10 photos

2. Tech culture – The most wired country in the world, South Korea has 82.7% Internet penetration, a virtual supermarket, GPS machines in every cab, digital countdowns at bus stops and a super-cool curved smart TV from Samsung (pictured).

Hide Caption

2 of 10

10 photos

3. Plastic surgery – Would-be-swans from around the world flock to South Korea on plastic surgery "medical tours," not only for the superb results, but also for the good deals. Outdoor advertisements for plastic surgery choke the Beauty Belt area in Gangnam. This one reads: "The plastic surgery clinic your mom chose for you."

Hide Caption

3 of 10

10 photos

4. Overworking – According to 2012 data from South Korea's Ministry of Strategy and Finance, South Koreans work 44.6 hours per week, compared to the OECD average of 32.8. You can see it in any Korean city, where lights in buildings blaze into the late hours as workaholics slave away.

Hide Caption

4 of 10

10 photos

5. Blind dates – In Korea, blind dates aren't just horror stories, they're a way of life. There are 2,500 matchmaking companies in the country.

Hide Caption

5 of 10

10 photos

6. Starcraft – In South Korea, Starcraft is actually a career -- a potentially lucrative one, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in earnings and endorsements possible. The game is so popular that the country was selected as test market for Starcraft 2.

8. Business boozing – While many leading companies are trying to curb the working/drinking culture, there are still plenty of bosses who drag their teams out for way too many rounds of soju/beer/whiskey "bombs." Jinro soju (Korean distilled rice liquor) was the world's best-selling liquor last year, for the eleventh year in a row.

Hide Caption

8 of 10

10 photos

9. Female golfers – Of the top 100 female golfers in the world, 38 are Korean. Of the top 10, four are Korean. Pictured here after winning the 2012 Evian Masters Golf Tournament, Inbee Park is the top-ranked player in women's golf.

Hide Caption

9 of 10

10 photos

10. Innovative cosmetics – Creams using volcanic clay, fermented soybeans, snail guts ... South Korea's obsession with beauty fuels a massive cosmetics industry. The country is also the world's largest market for men's cosmetics -- we're not judging, just reporting.

Hide Caption

10 of 10

Story highlights

Crazy competitiveness leads to surprising superlatives

South Koreans are devoted to cramming for tests, overworking, drinking and Starcraft

While they're chatting away on emoticon-ridden messenger apps such as Naver Line or Kakao Talk, South Koreans also use their smartphones to pay at shops, watch TV (not Youtube but real-time channels) on the subway and scan QR codes at the world's first virtual supermarket.

The world's first "virtual supermarket" opened inside a subway station in South Korea in 2011.

Hyundai plans on rolling out a car that starts with your smartphone in 2015.

South Koreans are so used to studying -- the country has the highest education level in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, with 98% of the population completing secondary education and 63% with a college education -- they can't get out of the habit once they reach the work force.

According to this quirky map from thedoghousediaries, Brazil sets the standard for FIFA World Cup titles and North Korea leads in "censorship," but South Korea takes the crown for workaholics.

You can see it in any Korean city, where lights in buildings blaze into the late hours as workers slave away.

According to 2012 data from South Korea's Ministry of Strategy and Finance, South Koreans work 44.6 hours per week, compared with the OECD average of 32.8.

And according to a study released in August 2014, along with Tokyo residents, Seoulites get the least amount of sleep of any residents of major cities in the world, just less than six hours a night.

Just as Korean men are less wary of going under the plastic surgery knife (see point 10) than their foreign counterparts, they also snap up skincare products and, yes, even makeup, namely foundation in the form of BB cream.

South Korea is by far the largest market for men's cosmetics, with Korean men buying a quarter of the world's men's cosmetics -- around $900 million a year, according to Euromonitor.

Inbee Park, 25, is the second-ranked player in women's golf and was the youngest player to win the U.S. Women's Open.

In January, Ko, 14, set the record for the youngest woman to ever win a professional golf tournament.

Chalk it up to crazy Korean competitiveness or to the Tiger Mom/Dad theory (golfer Se-Ri Pak's father is infamous for making her sleep alone in a cemetery every night to steel her nerves), but the phenomenon certainly begs study.

Widely thought to be a response to Korean domination of the sport, the U.S.-based LPGA passed a requirement in 2008 mandating that its members must learn to speak English, or face suspension.

Starcraft is actually a legitimate career in South Korea, with pro gamers raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars in earnings in addition to endorsements.

Since the game launched in 1998, nearly half of all games have been sold in South Korea, where boys, girls, men and women drop by for a night of gaming in giant video game parlors.

There are cable channels devoted solely to the games, and the culture has led to approximately 14% of Koreans between ages 9 and 12 suffering from Internet addiction, according to the National Information Agency.

To try to crack down, the government passed a ban dubbed the "shutdown law" or "Cinderella law" two years ago, prohibiting anyone 16 and younger from game websites. The ban has been widely ignored.

That's one of the most frequently asked questions of any Korean single.

The standard answer is the epic horror story that was the last blind date, often involving a crippling Oedipus complex or intolerable physical flaw.

Followed immediately by a chirpy, "Why, do you know someone you can set me up with?"

Due to the high volume of blind dates, when Korean make up their minds, they move quickly.

According to data compiled by South Korea's largest matchmaking company, Duo, the average length of time of a relationship from the (blind) first date to marriage is approximately 10.2 months for working people, with an average of 62 dates per couple.

In a survey conducted by Duo, working singles interested in marriage say they typically go on two blind dates a week.

They should know. Of the top four matchmaking companies in Korea (there are 2,500 companies in the country), Duo has a 63.2% marketshare.

Whether it's a lantern jaw, wide forehead or long teeth, there's no feature doctors can't beautify in the Asian capital for cosmetic surgery.

Russians, Chinese, Mongolians and Japanese flock to South Korea on plastic surgery "medical tours," not only for the skill of the surgeons, but for the good deals.

"An average -- not excellent -- face-lift in the United States will set you back about $10,000," Seoul National University Hospital plastic surgeon Kwon Seung-taik told CNN. "But in Korea you can get the same service for $2,000 or $3,000."